The present invention relates to an unmanned aircraft including a parachute braking and recovery system to be used for and for obtaining a horizontal landing during return and wherein a particular parachute is arranged in the fuselage of the aircraft and is expelled in the beginning of the landing phase so that the craft can drop to ground in a horizontal position and at a speed that permits safe and soft landing.
Remote controlled aircraft are known which operate on an automated and unmanned basis and they are used, for example, for purposes of reconnaissance. These crafts are usually, or at least in some cases, not deemed to be dispensible items, but are required to return to a home base or to any other predetermined or determinable point of return. For this it is known to realize a safe landing of the craft by means of a parachute which is part of the on-board equipment of the craft. In dependence upon a command issued from ground, the parachute is expelled for purposes of deployment as soon as the craft has reached the particular area for landing, and the parachute guides the craft safely to ground. This type of landing of a craft is, however, rather difficult to realize, particularly if the craft is to land in a precisely defined area. In other words, the localization of the landing process is difficult to achieve. Further difficulties may arise if the thrust-producing propeller of the craft is arranged in the tail thereof. In this situation, there simply arises the danger that the parachute, during its deployment, is in some form caught by the propeller.